by Larry Eder
EME NEWS (NOV 9, 2012)
Blake hopes for more stride length
KINGSTON (JAM): Sprinting star Yohan Blake is fine-tuning ahead of next season’s defence of his 100 metres World Championships title after resuming training just over a week ago. As Jamaica Gleaner writes the former St Jago High School standout said that things have been progressing well in training at the University of the West Indies-based Racers Track Club, and that he and coach Glen Mills have been working on correcting several technical defects ahead of the season. “I started training last Monday and it has been progressing well. I am just in the background part of it, of course, but it’s going according to plan so far,” Blake said. “My start has improved, but technically, what I am looking to work on is getting more stride length. If I get that, I will be able to shave a lot off my times,” Blake added. “Also, my hand comes across my body and I tend to run sideways, and so we are working on that a lot this year, so next season should be a cracker.”
Another award for Ennis
LONDON (GBR): Jessica Ennis said she will stick to heptathlon in 2013 but might concentrate on hurdles in 2014. In that year she will have Commonwealth Games and European Championships as top highlights. The olympic gold medalist and one of three finalists for Women Athlete of the Year Award has added the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year award to her haul of accolades from a memorable 2012.
Pishchalnikova will fight
MOSCOW (RUS): Russian discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova insists she is innocent and will ask for B sample analysis. She said that for Russian daily Sovietskiy Sport. Pishchalnikova already wrote an explanation letter. Result of the next analysis should be known by end of November. Russian Anti-Doping Agency RUSADA confirmed this week there is an investigation going on after her positive doping test earlier in the year.
Kozmus and Ratej
LJUBLJANA (SLO): Throwers won the Slovenian Athlete of the Year awards. Hammer olympic silver medalist Primoz Kozmus is the top male athlete and javelin Games seventh placer Martina Ratej the female one. Among men Kozmus got 203 points ahead of 400 m runner Brent LaRue (95) and high jumper Rozle Prezelj (55). Ratej scored 177 points ahead of triple jumper Marija Sestak (151) and hurdler Marina Tomic (52). Top juniors Marko Spiler and Barbara Spiler, top club Mass Ljubljana. AK Velenje recieved a special award for staging the 18th European CC Championships.
Last year for Sebrle
PREVIEWS
ATHENS (GRE): Pat Butcher writes that the 30th anniversary edition of the Athens Classic Marathon on Sunday will provide a little light relief for Greeks beleaguered by another round of austerity cuts. Leading the charge in the men’s race will be 2010 winner, Raymond Bett of Kenya, who reckons he is in much better shape than when he won two years back. Bett is having a best of 2.11.32 (Utecht 2009), and having won here in 2.12.40, then a race record; but which was improved last year by Abdelkerim Boubker of Morocco, with 2.11.39. The course record however belongs to Olympic champion 2004, Stefano Baldini of Italy, who ran 2.10.55. There are several faster runners on paper; Kenyan colleagues Alex Kirui, with 2.09.38 in Reims 2008, and Japhet Korir, 2.10.50 at Gold Coast 2011. But Mesfin Hailu of Ethiopia, 2.09.50 in Xiamen 2011 might be the strongest candidate for victory. There is also the interesting prospect of a debut by the younger brother of Abdelkader El Mouaziz, winner among others of London and New York, and 13 times a sub-2.10 marathoner. Hamid will have to go some to emulate big bro, but he did run a 61.15 ‘half’ in Holland last month. Sviatlana Kouhan of Belarus has had three victories in five marathons, winning Brighton in a personal best 2.29.37 earlier this year. But after a 34th place at London 2012, in 2.30.26, she is hoping to better her third place debut here in 2010. More on globerunner.org.
ISTANBUL (TUR): The new official name of the top Turkish marathon is 34th Vodafone Istanbul Eurasia Marathon. It is after signing a three years title sponsorship with Vodafone. Prize money for winners is equal 50 000 USD for top male and female runner this Sunday. Time bonuses are starting from 5000 USD for sub 2:09 through 10 000 for sub 2:08 and 15 000 for sub 2:07 and ending with 30 000 for sub 2:06, 65 000 for sub 2:05 and 150 000 for new world record. Women time bonuses are starting with 5000 for sub 2:20. In current elite athletes entries four runners have sub 2:10 bests, two Kenyans Stephen Chebogut and Evans Kiplagat with Nicholas Kemboi who runs for Qatar and Ethiopian Megerse Bacha. Interesting Europeans in the field are Spanish Carles Castillejo and Romanian Marius Ionescu. Title defender Alemitu Abera returns for the women race, other top Ethiopians in the field are Yal Koren and Amane Gobena. Strong European group with sub 2:30 bests is headed by Ukrainian Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko, Lithuanian Rasa Drazdauskaite, Hungarian Aniko Kalovics and home Sultan Haydar. Interesting debut is set for former Russian track medalist at world and European stage Olesya Syreva. She clocked for example in 2006 indoors 8:29.00 in the 3000 m and that year was 5th at World Indoor Championships in Moscow. Big star of the accompanying 15 km race is olympic medalist Elvan Abeylegesse. Course records are 2:10:39 by Kenyan Vincent Kiplagat and 2:27:25 by Ethiopian Ashu Kasim since 2010. In all events there is an field of 10 428 runners from 88 countries expected. (slight update of an item which already appeared in EME NEWS).
OTHER NEWS
MOSCOW (RUS): Organisers of World Championships in Moscow next year confirmed that marathon will not incorporate World Cup for teams. Last edition of this competition was staged in Daegu two years ago. IAAF World Marathon Cup started in 1985 with individual and team competitions and was held every second year. Since Athens 1997 it has been part of the World Championships, but only for teams. Last winners in Daegu were men and women of Kenya.
BYDGOSZCZ (POL): A two-day site visit to Bydgoszcz, host city of the upcoming IAAF World Cross Country Championships, concluded this week, informs the IAAF. IAAF Council Member Anna Riccardi, IAAF Competitions Department Senior Manager Carlo de Angeli and IAAF Coordinator La Tanya Waweru inspected the official team hotels and proposed event venues and discussed several key organizational aspects of the 40th edition of the Championships which will be held on Sunday, 24 March 2013 in this northwestern Polish city. “We are happy to be back in Bydgoszcz, the city of sports where we have organised successfully almost all of important events in our calendar,” Riccardi said, speaking at a well-attended press conference on Wednesday. “We bring the World C
ross Country Championships to a new formula of holding it every two years instead of each year. That is the reason of importance of the Bydgoszcz event.” The 2013 edition of the Championships will be an historic occasion for his city of 400,000 as it becomes the only city to host the event for the second time.
BERLIN (GER): Reigning shot put world champion and London silver winner David Storl was not invited by the German President´s office to the ceremony honouring Olympic and Paralympic medalists with the Silver Laurel Leaf. As Bild newspaper reports it was because he shot a dog during the 2011 Father´s Day Tour. “I can assure you that I have regretted it very much,” said Storl.
DAKAR (SEN): AIPS informs that at a time when sports journalism is going through one of its most difficult moments struggling to thrive in difficult financial times, Sports scribes and fans in Senegal have a reason to smile. The country marked a major milestone with the launch of an all sports daily newspaper on Thursday ‘Tout Le Sport’ which loosely translates to All sport. The sports newspaper which has employed about 25 journalists will not only look for originality in the treatment of its articles and reports but will also seek to get an identity in the face of competition from other journals and established newspapers n the Senegalese market.
BACOLET (TRI): Tobago was treated to a three-day Sport Caravan, at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, last weekend. A Ministry of Sport initiative, the goal of the Sport Caravan is talent identification. And on Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of primary and secondary school students showed up at the Yorke Stadium, hoping to prove themselves worthy of selection for further training. Cuban coaches, as well as coaches from Trinidad and Tobago, conducted sessions in basketball, boxing, cricket, football, golf, netball, track and field, and volleyball. Olympic men’s javelin gold medallist, Keshorn Walcott, together with his Cuban coach Ismael Lopez Mastrapa and manager Sean Roach, hosted a javelin clinic on Saturday and a competition on Sunday.
SURABAYA (INA): Please correct the Asian Games awarded to Hanoi, Vietnam will be held in 2019 that means not four but five year after Incheon 2014. The 18th Games were originally scheduled to take place in 2018 but the OCA decided in 2009 to permanently shift the quadrennial event to the year before the Summer Olympics. As a consolation Surabaya was awarded the fourth Asian Youth Games in 2021.
NAIROBI (KEN): Sportsnewsarena.com informs that you have seen him at his best running and even smashing world records. David Rudisha unknown side is how really good he is as an actor. Rudisha showcases his skills in a movie christened the First, as he retells the story of the ‘greatest moment ‘of his life. The man renowned for his fame on track relives the emotional moments of the finest 800m race of all time in the First, the official IOC film which will be rolled out in movie theatres worldwide from November 23. A host of other Olympic luminaries were at last Tuesday night’s premier in London’s West End also attended by the Chairman of the organizing committee Lord Sebastian Coe.
KINGSTON (JAM): The organizers of Jamaica’s annual GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships, dubbed as the world’s biggest and best high school meet, is now searching for new dates to stage the 2013 event because of football. Informs Trackalerts. The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced the full schedule of games for next year’s FIFA World Cup Qualifying final round, which sees Jamaica going up against Panama on March 22, the penultimate day set aside for Champs 2013. George Forbes, competition’s director at the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association, organizers of Champs, said although they had booked the stadium before, they would have to search for new dates. Champs was scheduled for March 19-23, 2013 and with Carifta Games (March 30-April 1) the week after, ISSA would have to seek earlier dates, maybe March 12-16. However, while most of the track & field calendar will be affected, there could be other problems as while track events would not disturb the football playing surface, the throwing events – javelin, discus and shot put – may have to be held at stadium east. This will also be difficult as this event always use for athletes to set up tents and warm-up. Apart from the early part of the calendar, other meets such as Prep Champs, Primary Champs, Junior Champs, and the All-Island Sagicor Meet could be affected by Jamaica’s matches against Mexico (June 4) and USA (June 7), also at the National Stadium.
LAKE PLACID (USA): Track stars hurdler Lolo Jones and sprinter Tianna Madison had great start to their new sport. Jones with driver Jazmine Fenlator got silver in the World Cup opener at Lake Placid on Friday, edging teammates Elana Meyers and Madison by 0.01. “I’m kind of in shock. We’ve been training with all the other Team USA members. It’s been an inner battle within our own team. I think this is great that we had a great run today on race day. I’m so used to just so relying on myself. I’ve never experienced this level of having a team before,” Jones was quoted as saying for the agencies.
RESULTS
MUKACHEVO (UKR, Nov 2-3): 10 000 m Ukrainian cup walking winners were Andriy Kovenko 39:14.6 and Lyudmila Olyanovska 45:26.3 (she was also the top junior). Best male junior Andriy Grechkovskiy was timed with 43:49.3.
